This is no mealy bug or biting mosquito! It’s the queen bee of a well-planned and “buzzing” homeschooling lifestyle: helping you to outline lesson plans, schedule activities, plan menus and shopping lists, stay within budget, inventory important household items, maintain school records, and much more.

We’ve caught this bug in the Schoolhouse Store, and you can catch it too. It’s the organizing bug!

And it’s spreading and swarming with organizing help and 27 amazing free gifts worth over $190!

From now until August 5, when you purchase The 2010 Schoolhouse Planner, you will receive 27 fabulous E-Books absolutely FREE–to help you plan fun, hands-on learning all through the homeschool year!

From now until midnight on August 5, you’ll receive . . .

All 12 2008 Schoolhouse Planner modules and our WeE-book™ Insect Bundle!

And there’s more! Through August 15, you’ll also receive . . .

All 12 2009 Schoolhouse Planner modules! In this un-bee-lievable package of gifts, you’ll instantly download all 24 supplementary Planner modules designed to complement the 2008 and 2009 Schoolhouse Planners.

These planner modules are mini unit studies centered on high-interest topics complete with an array of enjoyable activity pages, informational write-ups, engaging links, copywork pages, and more. Plus, the twelve 2009 modules have integrated high school content and the addition of lapbooking for your younger learners.

Hurry! At midnight on August 5, the 12 2008 Schoolhouse Planner modules and the WeE-book™ Insect Bundle are gone! At midnight on August 15, the 12 2009 Schoolhouse Planner modules are gone too!

Aesop, as depicted in the Nuremberg Chronicle by Hartmann Schedel. Here he is shown wearing 15th century German clothing

Many believe that Aesop was a man of high moral standards. This is a modern-day myth.
He was a slave, who used his writings as a vehicle to move from one bad living environment to another, but not equally, bad living environment.

Many believe that he created works of moral reasoning for children … also a myth.
Aesop’s fables were void of any morality. Morals were not an original part of the fables. His fables we often created as a distraction to outwit opponents and were often presented in obscene venues.

The fables themselves are more like jokes with punch lines than moral tales of ethics and wrongdoings. Since the fables are basically jokes, many are downright crude in their language. The tone of the fables is jocular rather than wise and tends to focus on wit rather than revelation.

Aesop’s Fables are lessons in moral reasoning … for adults.
While Aesop’s Fables may be in today’s terms, chock-full of “values” that everyone should ascribe to and the use of animals brings to life moral reasoning for a younger audience, Aesop and his fables do not have a place for study among younger children.

Carefully consider the fable, before you brand it as good.
However, given their popularity, careful selection becomes of paramount importance. The general reader misses many of the underlying themes. For example, many curriculum include the fable, The Young Crab and His Mother.  This is not a child’s story. This is a story aimed at chastising parents. It shows that children learn from their parents’ actions, not their words. Does the phrase, “Do as I say, not as I do” ring a bell?

Moral of this tale: Not all fables are innocent.